Are you willing to “Push Mow an Outfield”? (Written by my nephews' HS baseball coach in honor and memory of Dad)
Sounds like a crazy idea, right? Who in their right mind, with today’s modern mowers, would push mow an outfield? Obviously a “normal” person would not do this, but I know a man who started this task as he was preparing my game field for a contest that night. When I got to the field, he had mowed roughly a third of the outfield and the entire infield, with a push mower. As we figured out what was going on, one of our other coaches quickly unlocked the building the mowers were in, jumped on a riding mower and finished the job.
As I was standing there with the man I asked him why he started into the outfield with a push mower, he simply and calmly stated that it needed mowed before the game, he didn’t have keys to the riding mower storage building and I was working so he didn’t want to bother me. He stated, it needed done so I was going to use what I had to get it done. What he had was a push mower, 5 gallons of gas and a free afternoon. To me, this seemed like a crazy idea and, frankly, not a very efficient way to get the job done. To him however, it was about getting it mowed so it would look nice for his grandson’s game that night.
I never really gave this much more thought until a few days ago. I was actually attending this man’s funeral. As people were sharing stories about his well-known work ethic, I thought of him pushing the outfield. At that very moment, it hit me that I had missed a gift wrapped teachable moment with my players. The actual act of push mowing an outfield was not the point at all. The point was the dedication to a task and the willingness to do the work needed to complete it, whether it was the easy way or not. No excuses, just getting it done.
The question that I will pose to my team this off season and spring is simply this, are you willing to push mow an outfield? In this case, not literally but figuratively. Are you willing to do the work it takes to be a great player? Everybody wants to be good and, in the division in which we compete, talent is generally equal. This leaves us a small margin of error between winning and losing games. Will you hit the weights and train in the offseason? Will you take our drill work seriously and give it your full effort? Will you be a good teammate? Or, will you do the opposite and make excuses? I can sum all of these questions about work ethic and dedication up by asking, “would you push mow an outfield”?
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